Watching federal politics can’t help but prompt people to conclude that federal politicians are being opponents just to be opponents.

When the president was a Republican, and he wanted a big stimulus measure, who opposed it? The Democrats.

Now the president is a Democrat, and when he wanted a big stimulus measure, who opposes it? Republicans.

Too few in Washington are worth their words. Too many are short-sighted, only seeing the next election cycle. It seems they all want big spending measures that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off.

Many economists point to many factors for the cause of the economic recession America is in, only confusing the matter. Here’s the real deal: The subprime loan crisis that burst the housing bubble was only the first domino in a chain of dominoes that set the economy falling.

But the reason the dominoes were lined up to fall stems from two main problems with the American economy: 1. the mounting debt that foreigners feel our government might not be able to repay, thus devaluing the U.S. dollar and hurting American investments, and 2. the ever-deepening trade deficit, which by trading away our future we are inhibiting our ability to pay off our massive debt, only further harming our present economy and future economy.

While all these gargantuan spending measures in D.C. might be good for building confidence in the short term, they won’t do much good in the long term.

If our politicians want to build lasting American confidence, they need to work in a bipartisan manner in coming years to find budget surpluses and to encourage trade surpluses. This is the sort of discipline America voted for in November after eight years of mismanagement of the federal checkbook.

The party in charge of the federal checkbook would be wise to note this if its members wish to remain the party in charge.